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soooooo... 260 miles later

one of the nice things about riding in the north georgia mountains....

so, with GPS, i am pretty sure i know which way this road goes....

up to Tray Mountain, where i plan to shoot a few pics of of some gear i am testing... a Giant Loop Great Basin saddlebag, seen here.

*since* i could find anyone else who wanted to blow off their real work, the plan was to put my camera on a tripod and use a remote control to shoot.

unfortunately, i could not get this to work... hmmm, for some reason the remote won't fire the camera when i ride by... dangit!

so a shot of my bike, which is out standing in its field....

my only way to prove that i actually rode was some cheezy video, shot with my point/shoot camera hanging around my neck. this is a short clip with crappy sound, riding up Wolf Creek (gravel) and on to Wolf Pen Gap road (paved)... another nice thing about riding in the north Georgia mountains.

Down Sizing

Just read the article in BMWMOA about loosing some weight and down sizing, saw Ian's pictures of his HP, and I must say it got a chuckle out of me. A short while back I picked up a Giant Loop from Dave and the challenge was on: how to compress 70 liters of "stuff" from the panniers on my R1200GS into a 50 liter soft bag. Parting company with the "stuff" I thought I needed and never used proved to be a challenge.

I laid everything out on the floor, took the stuff I had to have (sleeping bag, pad, tent,Jetboil, food,a change of techno clothes) and painfully said goodbye to the rest of it. Boo hoo!

I must say that the panzer feels like a gazelle now! I don't feel that I sacrificed much but got rid of the stuff that I didn't need or use. Back road travel is "easier" now. Thanks for the great articles!

Need my stuff:)

I'm older and need all my stuff with me, I say. Besides , I love the protection I get from my Jesse's hanging out there. I have yet to fall on them, but have so many years riding dirt, falling is not a likely event or at least frequent. Never say never. I will fall! I like the articles too and good stuff IAN. I have yet to need to hammer my bags back into shape, except once I forgot. The KLR Jesse's had a hammer taken to them. All's good. Weight is ya'lls choice and its a great idea, so keep Ian smil'in as he does good work. Randy PS; remember those ENGLISH guys, Eran and Charlie, riding the world on 1150gs's and the Canada rearend crash by an auto from behind? This is NOT a likely trail event, but those hard bags saved the day for Eran, taking all the impact and still useful. I was amazed, as this auto hit him fairly hard from behind. The soft bags are a great idea still and I share the same weight saving ideas, especially riding dirt. Randy